Vail Valley Voices: Benghazi-gate

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The Benghazi cover-up continues. Now instead of just President Obama deceiving the American people and Congress with mob demonstrations stories over a remote movie, now Hillary Clinton joins the mendacity.

She was not accurate about the status of State Department employees, who mishandling the Benghazi killing of four citizens. She announced the resignation of a deputy secretary of state and others who were dismissed because of incompetence. Now these same employees have been reinstated with full salaries and different titles, a rearrangement of the deck chairs on the Titanic.

It is strange that Hillary, a tough campaigner, had completely disappeared even before her strange illness and a following concussion resulting in an announced blood clot in her brain.

She finally will testify before Congress today. Let's hope it is a timely and honest report for the congressional committee.

Hillary currently has a 71 percent approval rating among Democrats as their next candidate for president. How she handles what I believe to be a cover-up, continuing to withhold the truth, may well affect her approval rating. That is, if the press would ever criticize any Democrat.

What do we want to know from the secretary of state? How about the source of that foolish "up to date" security briefing provided to the ambassador of the United Nations, which she repeated five times to Sunday talk shows? Why was she selected and sacrificed with faulty intelligence? Obama mentioned the same crap seven times in his speech to the United Nations several days after the event. He suffered no criticism. It was clear to even the most uninformed that the attack was organized and planned to kill our people in Libya, and wasn't a protest mob.

Other questions: Mrs. Clinton, did you ever delay scheduling your appearance before Congress for any reason than medical? If so, could it be that Mr. Obama needed time to get your story straight? Why did you make the faulty announcement about your staff, knowing they were to be reassigned? Do you think that Sen.r Graham should hold up the president's nominations for secretary of defense and the director of the CIA until the real story about the Benghazi deaths comes out? What did Hillary and Obama know and when did they know it?

The people and Congress have a right to know.

Let's face it, the whole Benghazi episode was a colossal tragedy of errors. It appears that Obama should be under fire for the Benghazi cover-up, or "crew-up." Transparency has never been a virtue of the Obama administration.

Is Hillary following our prevaricating president? Why was the limited information about Benghazi and the rest of the story not disclosed until after the election (as though we didn't know)?

Also, why did the president leave Washington early the next morning for a Las Vegas fundraiser? It's unbecoming behavior for a president to skip town for a fundraiser after the death of an important American official. One might think he had something to hide. Obama still hasn't mentioned Benghazi in any campaign speeches, current speeches, or press conferences since.

It's as though it never happened. Obama apparently assumes that if ignored, it will go away, and the mainstream press are coconspirators.

Congress is mandated by the Constitution to have oversight over the government, including Obama and Clinton's behavior. Are the members so afraid of this president that they will allow him to totally destroy the Constitution? How many sections and rights can we afford to let Obama gut in our Constitution before they act? It's time for Congress to stand up and be counted. They should also put a lid on spending. After all, they are supposed to control the pursestrings.

There are so many Obama abuses of power that they could fill an entire "Vail Daily" or several editions. This president has yet to find an American tradition or a congressional limitation he likes. These abuses exist because we have a spineless Congress and a weak Supreme Court that does nothing.

King Obama will continue these abuses until he is confronted and stopped. For now, however, is the time to focus on Obama's Watergate, the "Benghazi-gate."

Dick Gustafson, of Vail, is a former two-term Eagle County commissioner.